I love the smell of Hoppes in the morning

[Half Moon]

https://i.gifer.com/WN4I.gif

Smells like... Victory...

14 months without a round downrange. 14 months of drought, now ended... and the rains were good. My stepson cleared his 14 days post Moderna #2 last Monday. The household is now all vaxxed, so after an afternoon birthday shopping for my wife, the stepson and I hit the indoor range.

Perishable skills were on display. Neither of us were shooting to our normal level but by the end of 400 rounds, between us, the groove, while not entirely there, was at least coming back.

Home was late-ish so put off cleaning to the morning. Awaiting ministration and ablution:

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S&W Model 12-2: carry revolver. Shooting well at low speed. High speed Mozambiques and such though were pitiful. Long sigh, I'd hoped dry fire would keep me in shape but not so much.

Manurhin MR73 3" :-) candidate field revolver purchased a couple months back. More details to go in a separate post.

S&W Model 14-3 4": brought to appease stepson's love of 4" K's. Got it right before COVID lockdowns and these were our first shots with it. Good shooter. Need to really wring it out once we're back in shape.

S&W 1917: Range toy and qualification revolver. Tightly grouping but about 4" low at 7 yards. This was a surprise. She is normally dead on to the sights. In a fit of lazy, left the Pachmayrs on her after using them to measure trigger reach for another member here. Suspect they altered the grasp enough to change the dynamics. Then again was also shooting a bulk batch of .45 ACP, bought just before lockdown, of a brand I haven't used before. So two factors changed. Need to put the stock profile grips back on and see what happens.

ENABLING: the range has a pre-Model 15, 4 screw (so 1958-ish) Combat Masterpiece for around $650'ish (can't remember the exact price). Quick look says clean bore, tight lockup, nice condition. Step-son is filibustering me to buy it but don't see us needing a 3rd 4" adjustable sighted K. If anyone is interested it's at the Calibers USA store on Cutler Avenue ( https://calibersusa.com/ ). They don't list their used stuff online but It looks like bargain worth a call if you're on the hunt for one of these.

[blues]

Now, if you had said "I love the smell of Ballistol in the morning"...I'd know you were no one to trifle with. ;)

[okie john]

I'd gone a few years without a bottle of Hoppes in the house and was missing the smell, so I went to the LGS and bought one. I paid the guy behind the counter and while he was fiddling around with the register, I opened the bottle and got ready to take a whiff.

In a loud and stern voice, he said, "Sir! Please don't drink that in the store."

Everyone turns to look at me and sure as hell, it looks like I'm about to drink Hoppe's.

Sure smelled good, though.


Okie John

[willie]

I'd gone a few years without a bottle of Hoppes in the house and was missing the smell, so I went to the LGS and bought one. I paid the guy behind the counter and while he was fiddling around with the register, I opened the bottle and got ready to take a whiff.

In a loud and stern voice, he said, "Sir! Please don't drink that in the store."

Everyone turns to look at me and sure as hell, it looks like I'm about to drink Hoppe's.

Sure smelled good, though.


Okie John

That smell at one time was much stronger. They tweaked the formula.

[willie]

Now, if you had said "I love the smell of Ballistol in the morning"...I'd know you were no one to trifle with. ;)

I have applied this fancy mineral oil on my legs and ankles to deter red bugs--chiggers to you city boys. Too, I would put it on my dogs to soothe hot spots. And yes, you could smell us before you saw us.

[Half Moon]

The Manurhin MR73:

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Bought this back in February. I have been setting aside a small fund for a custom 1911 but the MR73 has been on my grail list awhile. Watching panic pricing push revolvers like Model 19's and Model 38's (really?!?) into four figure territory, while the Manurhins were, for now, holding steady on price, changed my calculus. Add in possible new restrictions on imports etc, and I decided to divert the 1911 fund.

First impressions: the bluing is a bright, deep, and high polish. I actually had to rearrange the pic above a few times due to mirror reflections. The straw gold hammer and trigger, on the other hand, look pimpish and leave me meh.

The grips split the difference between a Smith and Wesson round butt and a square butt with maybe the best characteristics of both. They are hand filling and lend themselves to a solid grasp and natural index. All bearing in mind XL glove size on my part.

The two dot rear sight with a solid black ramp seems like a silly choice but is functional.

Trigger return out of the box was sluggish and sometimes would not return fully forward. I adjusted the return screw (which was set to minimal tension) a hair and it came right up to where it should be. After adjusting this, the trigger is smooth and light with a tiny less resistance than our K22 Target Masterpiece (weirdly I like that slight resistance of the K22, go figure. It feels natural after years shooting it).

I like grip adaptors on mid- frames revolvers. Oddly, trying J, K, and Colt BK adaptors, the closest curvature between trigger guard and grip frame is the J. The J adaptor was still too big though, front to rear, to fit in the gap. A Dremel sanding wheel adjustment or two later though and it worked. May try reprofiling a K adaptor at a later point but the J adaptor makes do for now.

Shooting was performed with Precision One 148 grain copper plated .38 Special wadcutters (Thankfully I bought another case of these before panic pricing set in) and Herretts 158 grain FMJ .357 Magnum.

Of the four revolvers shot yesterday she had the second tightest groups losing out to the 1917. I think this was all on me though. I'd rapid fire a cylinder and have tight groups with all shots touching, or nearly touching, for 4 to 5 shots then throw a flyer or two and blow it. Flyers were not consistent to any particular cylinder hole. I'm calling this garbage in, garbage out, all on me.

The sights are roomy and make a crisp sight picture better than comparable S&W ramp sights. Along with the trigger, she is well set up for rapid fire shooting. The sights fall back into a nice picture coming out of recoil and the smoothness of the trigger pull doesn't disturb the sights as you pull the next shot.

With the wadcutters she's a floofy, tabbycat (well, yeah, of course) but with .357 she's a handful. Your hand gets hammered but good. Stepson was also claiming a 2 foot jet of flame out the muzzle when I was shooting the .357 but think he might be exaggerating :-) A set of the fancy goodyears covering the back strap might be in order.

We'll see how things develop with more range time but overall I'm pretty pleased with the Manurhin. Now to start saving back up for a 1911, though those Freedom Arms packers sure do look interesting... :-)

[Flamingo]

What are the stocks made of? I really, really like them!

[Half Moon]

What are the stocks made of? I really, really like them!

Polished Giraffe bone. Kebco sells them separately if you have a Manurhin. In this case, he had exactly one 3" MR 73 in stock and they're what was on it.

[okie john]

That smell at one time was much stronger. They tweaked the formula.

Bastards did the same thing with Robitussin. It's unforgivable to take away a piece of my youth like that.


Okie John

[Crazy Dane]

Not that I would enable a bad habit...

Amazon.com : Hoppe's No. 9 Air Freshener, Pack of 3 : Sports & Outdoors (https://www.amazon.com/Hoppes-No-Air-Freshener-Pack/dp/B01AYEJK1Q)

[Half Moon]

And another deferred chore from last weekend, long sigh...

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Though really for all you'll hear about the pains of loading and unloading clips it ain't all that. Put on some background noise and just get in the rhythm: twist, pop... twist, pop. It can actually be kind of relaxing, like snapping beans on great grandma's porch. Granted for the range, I mostly use half moons which are a little less tough to work with than fulls...

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And all set for another day:

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[Stephanie B]

Hooray for Hoppe's Synthetic. I used to live in an apartment with no cross-ventilation and no balcony, I didn't shoot in cold weather. Then I found alternatives.

[Norville]

That smell at one time was much stronger. They tweaked the formula.


I believe they removed the benzene that made it work so well, but might have caused cancer.

[JAH 3rd]

Hooray for Hoppe's Synthetic. I used to live in an apartment with no cross-ventilation and no balcony, I didn't shoot in cold weather. Then I found alternatives.

How does the Synthetic version work as a cleaner? Always open to trying something else. Grew up on original Hoppes.

[Stephanie B]

How does the Synthetic version work as a cleaner? Always open to trying something else. Grew up on original Hoppes.

It seems to work OK. But I'm of the "finish shooting, clean the guns" school.